In-depth cookery book reviews.
In February 2007 I chanced upon a marvellous cookbook: The Ultimate Recipe Book by Angela Nilsen. It had just been published, so I’m not sure how (or where) I came across it so soon, in the days before my compulsive food blogging. But I was instantly taken with Nilsen’s approach of selecting 50 classic dishes ... Read more »
The best thing about blogging is meeting people. People who share the obsession with food and people who work in the industry – as chefs, producers and writers. One such individual I met recently was the charming and talented Josceline Dimbleby, at a lunch event for the launch of her latest book Orchards in the Oasis: ... Read more »
Why are we eating parsnips in the summer? Well… we grow our own vegetables and, last year, we planted parsnips for the first time. Early January was rainy and miserable and we left much of our winter crop in the ground for longer than we should have. So we urgently harvested a bumper crop of giant ... Read more »
Nigel Slater calls Leith’s Meat Bible “the best friend you can have in the kitchen” and whilst that title goes to my husband, I can understand why he endorses the book so enthusiastically – it’s likely to earn itself a permanent home on our bookshelves. Written by Max Clark and Susan Spaull the book is, as ... Read more »
I recenty won a copy of The Scandinavian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann, evidence of a recent growth in interest in Scandinavian food and lifestyle. People often ask me about trends in food. And usually, I stutter and stall as panic shuts my brain down and all thoughts of the various fads, trends, infatuations, developments (call ... Read more »
Snowflakes and Schnapps by Jane Lawson has a Scandinavian feel about it, focused as it is on hearty dishes with a winter theme. But actually, Australian-born Lawson covers a much wider swathe of Europe in this tome. The book’s blurb invites us to “Join Jane Lawson as she takes you on a culinary journey through ... Read more »
A few months ago I reviewed John Torode’s Chicken And Other Birds. This time it’s the turn of his latest book, Beef And Other Bovine Matters. The chicken pie we made to his recipe was a thing of beauty. Would his Aunty Mary’s beef pie be as good? Whereas the chicken pie recipe called for ready-made ... Read more »
Indulgence Coffee is a book about nostalgia. Published in April, it’s part of a series by Murdoch Books which aims to celebrate vintage style and “a bygone era when dressing up, serving tea in fine china and writing personal thank you notes afterwards were regarded as simply good manners.” In that, it succeeds, full of ... Read more »
Books on growing your own fruit and vegetables seem to be ten a penny at the moment, as publishers leap onto the latest bandwagon, keen to milk the home farming phenomenon. Often dull and weighty tomes, they add little to the existing excellent literature already available. Celia Brook Brown’s New Urban Farmer makes a refreshing change, ... Read more »
I’ve been desperate to cook some of the delectably tempting recipes in Cuisinier Gascon by Pascal Aussignac since I got my mitts on it just before leaving for the Falklands. It’s a really, really beautiful book, full of mouth-watering recipes and beautiful images, not just of some of the dishes but also of life in ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]